Congress names five nomineesDifferences persist on remaining seats
New Delhi, April 4
It was a sharp difference of opinion among various factions of the Haryana Congress that prevented the party from releasing the entire list of names of nominees late last night.

Maya lashes out at
BJP, Cong
Ambala/Jind, April 4
BSP supremo Mayawati, who is eyeing the post of Prime Minister, today lashed at the BJP and the Congress for making “lucrative promises” in their election manifestos “for befooling the poor.”

Errors in ID cards irk voters
Karnal, April 4
The voter photo identity card, a credible proof of age and identity, has become a curse for Rita Devi, a married woman of Chochra village in Assandh tehsil of Karnal district.

Parties intensify campaign
Faridabad, April 4
With the re-nomination of sitting Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana from the Faridabad parliamentary constituency, nominees of other parties here have intensified their campaign.

Two constables assaulted
Rewari, April 4
Two constables - Vijender and Sandeep - of the Hasanpur police station in Palwal district sustained injuries when they were reportedly assaulted by a proclaimed offender, Sunil Yadav, and his parents in Jharoda village, near Kosli, today.

Students hurt as bus overturns
Fatehabad, April 4
About 25 schoolchildren were injured when the bus of a CBSE-affiliated school at Ratia overturned on the Fatehabad-Ratia road this morning.

New Delhi, April 4
It was a sharp difference of opinion among various factions of the Haryana Congress that prevented the party from releasing the entire list of names of nominees late last night.

Past midnight, the central election committee of the Congress declared five candidates and held back the announcement of the names of the five others. The “obvious” names of Kumari Selja (Ambala), Avtar Singh Bhadana (Faridabad), Navin Jindal (Kurukshetra), Jai Prakash (Hisar) and Deepender Hooda (Rohtak) were formally declared. All are sitting MPs.

Polling in Haryana is scheduled for May 7. In 2004, the Congress had won 9 of the 10 seats in the state with the BJP winning the lone seat of Sonepat.

Sources in the party said state Finance Minister Birender Singh, a Jat leader, wanted to contest the Sonepat seat and the possibility of his name was being debated. Birender’s name was being opposed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, a senior Congress leader told The Tribune. Birender, who was also the front runner for the post of Chief Minister of the state at one point of time, now fancies his chances of being a Union Minister in case the UPA is voted back to power.

For Gurgaon, a section among the party wants a Muslim face as Muslim-dominated areas of the Mewat region have been clubbed with Gurgaon following delimitation. Union Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh, sitting MP from Mahendragarh, wants to shift to Gurgaon and has dug in his heels on the demand. The BSP has fielded a “strong” Muslim candidate in Zakir Hussain. The section wanting a Muslim face also says that logically Rao should contest the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. On the other hand, Rao’s supporters have pointed out that Rao is an Ahir and stands a low chance of winning in the Jat-dominated Bhiwani-Mahendragarh seat. However, Rao is likely to contest from Gurgaon. His proximity to the topmost bosses of the Congress party is well known and his wish is set to be granted.

In case of Bhiwani, the name of Shruti Choudhry, daughter of former minister Surender Singh and granddaughter of Bansi Lal, is being backed by a strong lobby that is also close to Shurti’s mother Kiran Choudhry.

In Sirsa, the party wants to change sitting MP Atma Singh Gill. Sirsa is a reserved seat and is the base of the all-powerful sect, Dera Sacha Sauda. The name of Youth Congress chief Ashok Tanwar is on top of the list. For Karnal, the Chief Minister is backing Venod Sharma, a sitting MLA from Ambala. A section within the party wants that the ticket should go to either Kuldeep Sharma or Arvind Sharma, the sitting MP.

Another factor stalling the announcement is the fact that the Haryana Janhit Congress, led by the father-son duo of Bhajan Lal and Kuldip Bishnoi, could poach upon the disgruntled section among the rejected nominees. The party believes that Arvind Sharma and AS Gill could be among those whom Bhajan Lal could approach.

Ambala/Jind, April 4
BSP supremo Mayawati, who is eyeing the post of Prime Minister, today lashed at the BJP and the Congress for making “lucrative promises” in their election manifestos “for befooling the poor.”

Addressing two election rallies at Ambala and Jind, Mayawati cautioned her more than jubilant supporters, who come mostly from weaker sections of society, not to be taken in by the promises of subsidised ration made by these parties. “These parties make several promises in their manifestos to get your votes. But once the elections are over, the manifestos are thrown in the nearest dustbin,” she added.

Mayawati reiterated that big capital houses financed the election campaigns of the national parties and their allies. Therefore, after the elections these parties tailored their policies to further enrich these business houses. On the other hand, the BSP never accepted any money from the business houses and contested the elections on the strength of the hard-earned money of its workers. Hence, the BSP was under no obligation of the capitalists.

Especially singling out the BJP, Mayawati said now it was talking of framing a law to bring Indian money deposited in foreign countries, whereas the party had ample opportunity to do so when it was in power for six years.

Ever since Independence, the country had been ruled by the Congress or the BJP along with their allies. Due to their wrong policies, the downtrodden and the middle class of all castes had suffered. Mayawati said in UP, where the BSP had been able to make the government on its own, it had launched various schemes for the poor of all castes. If it had fulfilled the reservation quota for the Scheduled Castes, it had also made reservation for the poor of the upper castes.

Mayawati did not stand on false modesty when she told the cheering crowds that they must vote for the BSP because for the first time a person representing the downtrodden had a chance to become the Prime Minister. She was obviously referring to herself. She said the BSP must come to power at the Centre because several of her suggestions like reservation for Dalit Christians and religious minorities had not been implemented because it required Constitutional amendment.

Riding high on the “success” of her social engineering formula, Mayawati mainly focused her speech on proper representation to all castes and communities in power. She said her party had not joined hands with “Bhajan Lal, Chautala or any other Lal.” The party had given representation in the party nominations to all communities.

Appreciating the work done by BSP coordinator for Haryana Mann Singh Manhera and his team, Mayawati said she had great expectations from her supporters in the state.

It must have gladdened the heart of Mayawati when a large number of women and young men danced to the tune of a song sung in her praise by Parkash Singh Pakhi. The song seems to have become a sort of state anthem of the party. They way the crowd danced should be a clear signal those politicians who believe that the votes of the downtrodden can be purchased. This time it may not be possible.

Karnal, April 4
The voter photo identity card, a credible proof of age and identity, has become a curse for Rita Devi, a married woman of Chochra village in Assandh tehsil of Karnal district.

She has been lucky to get the photo ID card but has been shown as a male infant in it.

Her date of birth is September 4, 1988, but as per her voter ID card, she is an infant and her date of birth has been mentioned as November 8, 2008. Her husband, Ram Niwas, says that even in the ID card of his father, Darshan Lal Singh, the date of birth is wrong.

This is not a solitary example of exclusions and errors in the preparation of electoral rolls and photo ID cards, several other people have complained of comic errors. BD Grover, a resident of house No. 789, Sector 8 in Karnal, was shocked to know that 42 voters had been registered at his address. When he brought the matter to the notice of the authorities concerned, 35 names were deleted and only seven genuine residents were enrolled as voters.

Complaints of exclusion of names from the voter list are also pouring in and strangely the number of voters in the Karnal constituency has decreased by about 22,000. In the normal course, there is a steady increase in the number of voters and as per the demographic graph, the increase in voters should be about 60,000 in five years. However, the number has gone down as there has been a large-scale deletion of names in several areas.

The authorities have asked left-out voters to get themselves registered by April 8. However, they have denied allegations of large-scale errors in the voter list or ID cards.

Deputy Commissioner Chander Prakash maintained that names of bogus or duplicate voters had been deleted during revision, which was a long-drawn process.

Faridabad, April 4
With the re-nomination of sitting Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana from the Faridabad parliamentary constituency, nominees of other parties here have intensified their campaign.

Earlier, the situation in the Congress camp had become murkier with sitting MLAs and the minister , AC
Chaudhary, also angling to be a Congress nominee.

After the announcement of his name, Bhadana said he would “win the election without any contest”. He said his party had strong cushion in the “progressive and gentle” image of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and a number of developmental works done, especially here, by the Congress government. Rakhi
Sethi, a senior leader of the youth wing of the Haryana Congress, said the youth were impressed with the personality and leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The youth wing has already launched a campaign among the youth, she added.

The
BSP, which was the first to declare Chetan Sharma, a former member of the cricket team, as its nominee from
Faridabad, has intensified its campaign in view of the April 6-Palwal public meeting to be addressed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister
Mayawati.

The Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) has also intensified its campaign. Its
supremo, Kuldip Bishnoi, has addressed a series of public meetings to support its nominee, Chander
Bhatia.

The BJP is behind none and its cadre along with the workers of the
INLD, its alliance partner, launched a mass mobilisation campaign. A senior BJP leader said things had become easy for his party nominee, Ram Chander
Bainda, on account of re-nomination of Avtar Singh Bhadana, as its nominee.

Rewari, April 4
Two constables - Vijender and Sandeep - of the Hasanpur police station in Palwal district sustained injuries when they were reportedly assaulted by a proclaimed offender, Sunil Yadav, and his parents in Jharoda village, near Kosli, today.

Sunil Yadav, who was reportedly involved in a criminal case registered against him at the Hasanpur police station in March 2006 and who had managed to remain out of the police dragnet, was declared a proclaimed offender by a Palwal court.

However, recently when the Palwal police got a tip-off, the two constables were today sent to Jharoda village to apprehend Sunil.

As the constables attempted to nab Sunil, he, along with his parents, allegedly assaulted the constables and foiled their apprehension bid.

A police party of Kosli soon reached Jharoda. However, in the meantime, while Sunil reportedly fled from the village, his parents too went into hiding.

Meanwhile, the injured constables were given treatment at a hospital in Kosli. The police has registered a case of assault, causing hurt, obstruction in the discharge of official functions and harbouring an offender under Sections 332, 353, 186, 216 and 34 of the IPC against the accused, Sunil, his father Nihal Singh Yadav and mother Prem Devi.

Fatehabad, April 4
About 25 schoolchildren were injured when the bus of a CBSE-affiliated school at Ratia overturned on the Fatehabad-Ratia road this morning.

Reports said the steering of the bus carrying 35 children failed when it was about to reach the school, Akal Academy, and the bus overturned on the roadside, resulting in injuries to around 25 students.

The bus was bringing students from Teliwada, Dhani Babanpur and Musakhera villages and most of the students belonged to these villages.

Students said the bus was being driven at a high speed, when it suddenly went out of control and overturned on the roadside. Driver Ashok Kumar of Lalwas village fled from the scene after the incident.

Teachers from Akal Academy rushed to the accident site and shifted the injured students to the Ratia Community Health Centre.

The school Principal, however, said that 11 or 12 children had been injured of which one had suffered a fracture while four students had received lacerated wounds.

Sirsa, April 4
Two children, aged 10 and 12, drowned in Rangoi Nullah near Bajekan village on Friday. The incident occurred when both children, sons of shepherds Bhagat Singh and Piare Lal, respectively, had gone towards fields with their goats and sheep. According to another child accompanying them, one of the children tried to wash his hands in the nullah and was drowned in the 12-ft deep water.

The other child, who jumped into the nullah to save him, also lost his life.
— TNS

Kurukshetra, April 4
A furnace of Mahabharata time was excavated by a team led by Rajendra Singh Rana, a museum lecturer-cum-archaeologist of the Srikrishna museum, Kurukshetra, during surface exploration of an ancient site at Daulatpur village, 15 km from here today.

Rana said his team visited Daultpur, which was situated on the bank of Drishadwati, a tributary of river Saraswati, to collect the ancient pottery. The 6-metre high mound contains cultural deposits of late Harappan (1700-1300 BC), Painted Grey Ware (1100-800 BC) and Early Historic (500 BC-500 AD) cultures.

Rana said the team noticed a furnace about 10-ft in diameter and 2-ft deep.

Karnal, April 4
Som Prakash (25), a labourer at rice sheller died after falling from the roof at Taraori while another person was seriously injured and brought to hospital here. The deceased is survived by his wife Kamlesh and three children Vickey, Ljay and Lalo. The body of deceased has been sent for postmortem.